Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Wireless Channel Equalization In Digital Communication Systems, Sammuel Jalali

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Our modern society has transformed to an information-demanding system, seeking voice, video, and data in quantities that could not be imagined even a decade ago. The mobility of communicators has added more challenges. One of the new challenges is to conceive highly reliable and fast communication system unaffected by the problems caused in the multipath fading wireless channels. Our quest is to remove one of the obstacles in the way of achieving ultimately fast and reliable wireless digital communication, namely Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), the intensity of which makes the channel noise inconsequential.

The theoretical background for wireless channels modeling and …

Effects Of Hypoxia Exposure On Hepatic Cytochrome P450 1a (Cyp1a) Expression In Atlantic Croaker: Molecular Mechanisms Of Cyp1a Down-Regulation, Md. Saydur Rahman, Peter Thomas

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hypoxia-inducible factor-α (HIF-α) and cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) are biomarkers of environmental exposure to hypoxia and organic xenobiotic chemicals that act through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, respectively. Many aquatic environments heavily contaminated with organic chemicals, such as harbors, are also hypoxic. Recently, we and other scientists reported HIF-α genes are upregulated by hypoxia exposure in aquatic organisms, but the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia regulation of CYP1A expression have not been investigated in teleost fishes. As a first step in understanding the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia modulation of CYP1A expression in fish, we characterized CYP1A cDNA from croaker liver. Hypoxia exposure …

A Detailed Record Of Shallow Hydrothermal Fluid Flow In The Sierra Nevada Magmatic Arc From Low-Δ18o Skarn Garnets, M. E. D'Errico, J. S. Lackey, Benjamin E. Surpless, S. L. Loewy, J. L. Wooden, J. D. Barnes, A. Strickland, J. W. Valley

Geosciences Faculty Research

Garnet from skarns exposed at Empire Mountain, Sierra Nevada (California, United States) batholith, have variable δ¹⁸O values including the lowest known δ¹⁸O values of skarn garnet (–4.0‰) in North America. Such values indicate that surface-derived meteoric water was a significant component of the fluid budget of the skarn-forming hydrothermal system, which developed in response to shallow emplacement (∼3.3 km) of the 109 Ma quartz diorite of Empire Mountain. Values of δ¹⁸O, measured in situ across single garnet crystals by secondary ion mass spectrometry, vary considerably (up to 7‰) and sometimes abruptly, indicating variable mixing …

Holocene Earthquakes And Late Pleistocene Slip Rate Estimates On The Wassuk Range Fault Zone, Nevada, Usa, J. M. Bormann, Benjamin E. Surpless, M. W. Caffee, S. G. Wesnousky

Geosciences Faculty Research

The Wassuk Range fault zone is an 80‐km‐long, east‐dipping, high‐angle normal fault that flanks the eastern margin of the Wassuk Range in central Nevada. Observations from two alluvial fan systems truncated by the fault yield information on the vertical slip rate and Holocene earthquake history along the range front. At the apex of the Rose Creek alluvial fan, radiocarbon dating of offset stratigraphy exposed in two fault trenches shows that multiple earthquakes resulted in 7.0 m of vertical offset along the fault since ∼9400 cal B.P. These data yield a Holocene vertical slip rate of 0.7±0.1  mm/yr. The south trench …

A Fire Simulation Model For Heterogeneous Environments Using The Level Set Method, Shin-En Lo

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Wildfire hazard and its destructive consequences have become a growing issue around the world especially in the context of global warming. An effective and efficient fire simulation model will make it possible to predict the fire spread and assist firefighters in the process of controlling the damage and containing the fire area. Simulating wildfire spread remains challenging due to the complexity of fire behaviors. The raster-based method and the vector-based method are two major approaches that allow one to perform computerized fire spread simulation. In this thesis, we present a scheme we have developed that utilizes a level set method …

Thomson-Resonant Interference Effects In Elastic X-Ray Scattering Near The Cl K Edge Of Hcl, Stephane Carniato, P. Selles, Loic Journel, Renaud Guillemin, Wayne C. Stolte, L. El Khoury, T. Marin, Faris Gel'mukhanov, Dennis W. Lindle, Marc Simon

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

We experimentally observed interference effects in elastic x-ray scattering from gas-phase HCl in the vicinity of the Cl K edge. Comparison to theory identifies these effects as interference effects between non-resonant elastic Thomson scattering and resonant Raman scattering. The results indicate the non-resonant Thomson and resonant Raman contributions are of comparable strength. The measurements also exhibit strong polarization dependence, allowing an easy identification of the resonant and non-resonant contributions.

A New Method To Derive Electronegativity From Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering, Stephane Carniato, Loic Journel, Renaud Guillemin, Maria Novella Piancastelli, Wayne C. Stolte, Dennis W. Lindle, Marc Simon

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

Electronegativity is a well-known property of atoms and substituent groups. Because there is no direct way to measure it, establishing a useful scale for electronegativity often entails correlating it to another chemical parameter; a wide variety of methods have been proposed over the past 80 years to do just that. This work reports a new approach that connects electronegativity to a spectroscopic parameter derived from resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. The new method is demonstrated using a series of chlorine-containing compounds, focusing on the Cl 2p−1LUMO1 electronic states reached after Cl 1s→LUMO core excitation and subsequent KL radiative decay. Based on …

Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Of Methyl Chloride At The Chlorine K Edge, L. El Khoury, Loic Journel, Renaud Guillemin, Stephane Carniato, Wayne C. Stolte, T. Marin, Dennis W. Lindle, Marc Simon

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of isolated CH3Cl molecules using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The high-resolution spectra allow extraction of information about nuclear dynamics in the core-excited molecule. Polarization-resolved RIXS spectra exhibit linear dichroism in the spin-orbit intensities, a result interpreted as due to chemical environment and singlet-triplet exchange in the molecular core levels. From analysis of the polarization-resolved data, Cl 2px, y and 2pz electronic populations can be determined.

Stability Of Rock Slopes Along Raidah Escarpment Road, Asir Area, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed M. Youssef, Norbert H. Maerz, Abdulla A. Al-Otaibi

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Raidah Escarpment road is located north west of Abha city, Asir region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This escarpment road represents an important corridor in the area which connects different villages and tourist resorts with each other. The total length of this road section is about 9 km which passes through a highly mountainous area. The road also passes through areas of different geological hazards (rock, debris flow, soil, and weathered zones). The different environmental factors (e.g. intensive rainy summer), variable geological and structural elements (weak rocks, slide debris weak soils, shear zones, and faults) difficult road characteristics (narrow roads …

Content Contribution In Social Media: The Case Of Youtube, Qian Tang, Bin Gu, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social media allows individuals and businesses to contribute contents for public viewing. However, little is known about the underlying incentives that why content providers derive utilities from such activities. In this study, we build a dynamic structural model to recover the utility function for content providers. Our model distinguishes short-term payoffs based on ad revenue sharing from long-term payoffs driven by content providers' reputation. The model was estimated using a panel data of 914 top 1000 video providers on You Tube from Jun 7th, 2010, to Aug 7th, 2011 since top providers are more likely to be encouraged by these …

Modeling The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Coastal Marsh Birds, Bradley A. Pickens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wetland birds are likely to be influenced by habitat at multiple spatial scales, yet few studies have investigated bird responses at both broad and fine scales. Northern Gulf Coast marshes are dynamic ecosystems, and they provide an ideal place to examine habitat across spatial and temporal scales. My research focused on the secretive marsh bird guild (i.e. bitterns, rails, gallinules, grebes) with an emphasis on the king rail (Rallus elegans), a species of high conservation concern. My objectives were to investigate the wetland bird-environment relationship across scales, and to model annual changes in bird distribution. Study sites were in the …

Perpetual Requirements Engineering, Manuel Alfonso Peralta

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to make a contribution within the fields of distributed systems, security, and formal verification. We provide a way to formally assess the impact of a given change in three different contexts. We have developed a logic based on Lewis’s Counterfactual Logic. First we show how our approach is applied to a standard sequential programming setting. Then, we show how a modified version of the logic can be used in the context of reactive systems and sensor networks. Last but not least we show how this logic can be used in the context of security systems. Traditionally, change …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Red And Near-Infrared Bodipy-Based Fluorophores For Various Biological Applications, Timsy Kaur Uppal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT 4,4-Difluoro-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene, better known as BODIPY® dyes, have attracted considerable attention due to their intriguing physicochemical and spectral properties, including high absorption coefficient, fluorescence quantum yield and good photochemical stability. Despite the recent progress achieved in this field, the synthesis of BODIPY derivatives that absorb and emit in the red- and NIR-region of the electromagnetic spectrum and their application to biomolecular targets, represents a long-standing challenge in BODIPY chemistry. This research work is therefore focused on the synthesis and characterization of red and NIR-emissive BODIPY-based fluorophores for various bioanalytical and biomedical applications. Chapter 1 of this dissertation represents a concise …

Energy, Environment, And Sustainability: A Hierarchical Analysis Of South Louisiana, Matthew Korbel Moerschbaecher

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation details research into the sustainability of industrial, human, and natural systems in south Louisiana. Chapter 1 is a general introduction. Chapter 2 calculates the energy return on financial investment (EROFI) of oil and gas production in the ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in 2009 and the Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon Block 252). I calculated a preliminary Energy Return on Investment (EROI) using a range of energy intensity ratios. The EROFI for ultra-deepwater oil and gas at the wellhead was roughly 0.85 gallons, per dollar. These estimates of EROI for 2009 ultra-deepwater oil and natural gas at the wellhead …

Total Synthesis Of A Virotoxin And Analogs For Conformational Studies, Benson Jumba Edagwa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the first total synthesis of alloviroidin in trace amounts, along with that of three analogs containing L-proline (Pro), trans-3-hydroxyproline (3-Hyp) or cis-4-hydroxyproline (4-hyp) residue substituting for 2,3-trans-3,4-trans-dihydroxyproline in the natural product. We report herein an efficient strategy that provides a dipeptide containing a (2S,4S)-4,5-dihydroxyleucine (dihyLeu) residue, including a diastereoselective dihydroxylation. Nα-Carbobenzyloxy-(2S)-4,5-dehydroleucine was coupled with valine ethyl ester to give a dipeptide that was subjected to a Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation to introduce the diol. The relative configuration at C4 was assigned as S by X-ray crystallography after derivatization as an α-amino-γ-lactone hydrochloride salt. The preparation of the 2-(methylsulfonyl)tryptophan …

The Effects Of Spatial Confinement And Oxygen Stoichiometry On Complex Metal Oxides, Zhaoliang Liao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complex metal oxides, such as transition-metal oxides, appearing with exotic properties and optimal functionalities, present formidable challenges in condensed matter physics, while at the same time, immense opportunities in materials science and engineering. The signature of these materials is the multitude of competing ground states that can be tuned or manipulated by doping, structural modification, strain induction, or the application of external stimulus, such as pressure, electric or magnetic fields, etc. The interest in these materials stems from the richness of their novel properties, the complexity of underlying physics, and the promise of technological applications. Novel phenomena emerge by spatial …

Application Of Asymmetrical Periodic Signals As Test Vectors For Analog Fault Detection: A Novel Perspective Of Classical Concepts, Badar Ud Din Ahmed, Wang Youren, Najam-Ud-Din Ahmed

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Analog fault diagnosis is a field of paramount importance, and test signal generation is an important prerequisite for analog fault detection. Several stimuli have been used as input test vectors. This study presents a novel approach for the adoption of classical methods and signals for fault detection. This involves the use of asymmetrical periodic signals and comparison of their effectivity in maximizing output response between faulty and conforming circuits. The technique helps to determine a minimal set of test signals for a circuit. It also enables the test designer to identify the parts of the frequency spectra of various signal …

Effects Of Routing Algorithms On Novel Throughput Improvement Of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Barbaros Preveze, Aysel Şafak

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

A cognitive method called most congested access first (MCAF), minimizing the packet loss ratio and improving the throughput of a multihop mobile WiMAX network, is proposed. MCAF combines both the time division multiple access and the orthogonal frequency division multiple access methods. MCAF additionally uses spectral aid and buffer management methods, which are proposed in this paper, to manage both spectrum access and packets in the buffers. By using these novel methods, real-time video and voice packet transmission is achieved, data packet loss rate is minimized, and the system throughput per node is improved. Effects of fastest path and ant …

Considering Transmission Loss For An Economic Dispatch Problem Without Valve-Point Loading Using An Ep-Epso Algorithm, Sevugarathinam Muthu Vijaya Pandian, Keppanagowder Thanushkodi

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Economic dispatch (ED) is one of the most important optimization problems in a power system. The objective of ED is sharing the power demand among the online generators while keeping the minimum cost of generation as a constraint. The aim of this paper is to operate an electric power system as economically as possible within its security limits. This paper proposes the following 2 new particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to solve a nonconvex economic dispatch problem: an efficient PSO is termed as efficient particle swarm optimization (EPSO), and a hybrid of evolutionary programming (EP) and EPSO is termed as …

Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Video Surveillance Platform Quadrocopter Aircraft, Michael John Skadan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Redistricting Using Constrained Polygonal Clustering, Deepti Joshi, Leen-Kiat Soh, Ashok Samal

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Redistricting is the process of dividing a geographic area consisting of spatial units—often represented as spatial polygons—into smaller districts that satisfy some properties. It can therefore be formulated as a set partitioning problem where the objective is to cluster the set of spatial polygons into groups such that a value function is maximized [1]. Widely used algorithms developed for point-based data sets are not readily applicable because polygons introduce the concepts of spatial contiguity and other topological properties that cannot be captured by representing polygons as points. Furthermore, when clustering polygons, constraints such as spatial contiguity and unit distributedness should …

Effectiveness Of Grass Filters In Reducing Phosphorus And Sediment Runoff, Ahmed Al-Wadaey, Charles S. Wortmann, Thomas G. Franti, Charles A. Shapiro, Dean E. Eisenhauer

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Surface water contamination can often be reduced by passing runoff water through perennial grass filters. Research was conducted in 2006 to 2008 to evaluate the size of cool season grass filters consisting primarily of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) with some orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata L.) relative to drainage area size in reducing runoff sediment and phosphorus (P). The soil was Pohocco silt loam Typic Eutrochrepts with a median slope of 5.5%. The grass filters occupying 1.1 and 4.3% of the plot area were compared with no filter with four replications. The filters were planted in the V-shaped …

Features For Non-Targeted Cross-Sample Analysis With Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Chromatography, Stephen E. Reichenbach, Xue Tian, Chiara Cordero, Qingping Tao

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

This review surveys different approaches for generating features from comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography for non-targeted cross-sample analysis. The goal of non-targeted cross-sample analysis is to discover relevant chemical characteristics (such as compositional similarities or differences) from multiple samples. In non-targeted analysis, the relevant characteristics are unknown, so individual features for all chemical constituents should be analyzed, not just those for targeted or selected analytes. Cross-sample analysis requires matching the corresponding features that characterize each constituent across multiple samples so that relevant characteristics or patterns can be recognized. Non-targeted, cross-sample analysis requires generating and matching all features across all samples. Applications of …

Quantitative Analysis Of Co-Enzyme A In A Plant Tissues And Cancer Biomarkers In Urine Samples By Using Capillary Electrophoresis And Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Yongqing Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Despite continuous effort and progress in cancer detection and therapy, cancer remains one of our greatest health concerns because of its low survival rate and rapid incidence increase. One reason for this is the late detection and therefore pre-cancer diagnosis is crucial. In pre-cancer studies, cancer biomarkers become significant because of the useful information it contains such as possible cancer type and stage. Separation and detection technique plays an important role in cancer biomarker identification.

Coenzyme A (CoA) facilitates more than 100 chemical reactions in cells. Because of its low abundance accumulated in cells, it is critical to develop a …

Evaluating The Benefits Of Octree-Based Indexing For Lidar Data, Abu Saleh Mohammad Mosa, Bianca Schoen-Phelan, Michela Bertolotto, Debra Laefer

Articles

Very large true three-dimensional (3D) point datasets, as opposed to the previously common 2.5D data sets, are progressively more common nowadays, such as from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Increasingly, attempts are made to exploit these 3D point data sets beyond mere visualization. However, current Spatial Information Systems provide only limited 3D support. Even commercial systems advertising in-built, 3D data types provide only minimal functionality. Particularly, there is no effective means of indexing large 3D point datasets, which is crucial for efficient analysis and engineering usage. Also many datasets are information rich (e.g. contain color or some other associated semantic …

Emission Changes Resulting From The San Pedro Bay, California Ports Truck Retirement Program, Gary A. Bishop, Brent G. Schuchmann, Donald H. Stedman, Douglas R. Lawson

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Recent US EPA emissions regulations have resulted in lower emissions of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen from heavy-duty diesel trucks. To accelerate fleet turnover the State of California in 2008 along with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (San Pedro Bay Ports) in 2006 passed regulations establishing timelines forcing the retirement of older diesel trucks. On-road emissions measurements of heavy-duty diesel trucks were collected over a three-year period, beginning in 2008, at a Port of Los Angeles location and an inland weigh station on the Riverside freeway (CA SR91). At the Port location the mean fleet age …

Multi-Species Remote Sensing Of Vehicle Emissions On Sherman Way In Van Nuys California, Gary A. Bishop, Brent G. Schuchmann, Donald H. Stedman, Douglas R. Lawson

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

As part of the 2010 Van Nuys tunnel study, researchers from the University of Denver measured on-road fuel-specific light-duty vehicle emissions from nearly 13,000 vehicles on Sherman Way (0.4 miles west of the tunnel) in Van Nuys, CA with its multi-species FEAT remote sensor a week ahead of the tunnel measurements. The remote sensing mean gram per kilogram carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) measurements are 8.9% lower, 41%, and 24% higher than the tunnel measurements respectively. The remote sensing CO/NO_x and HC/NO_x mass ratios are 28% lower and 20% higher than …

Robust Evolutionary Algorithms, Brian Wesley Goldman

Masters Theses

"Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) have shown great potential to solve complex real world problems, but their dependence on problem specific configuration in order to obtain high quality performance prevents EAs from achieving widespread use. While it is widely accepted that statically configuring an EA is already a complex problem, dynamic configuration of an EA is a combinatorially harder problem. Evidence provided here supports the claim that EAs achieve the best results when using dynamic configurations. By designing methods that automatically configure parts of an EA or by changing how EAs work to avoid configurable aspects, EAs can be made more robust, …

A New Semantic Similarity Join Method Using Diffusion Maps And Long String Table Attributes, Bilal Hani Hawashin

Wayne State University Dissertations

With the rapid increase of the distributed data sources, and in order to make information integration, there is a need to combine the information that refers to the same entity from different sources. However, there are no global conventions that control the format of the data, and it is impractical to impose such global conventions. Also, there could be some spelling errors in the data as it is entered manually in most of the cases. For such reasons, the need to find and join similar records instead of exact records is important in order to integrate the data. Most of …

Artificial Agents, Cloud Computing, And Quantum Computing: Applying Floridi’S Method Of Levels Of Abstraction, Marty J. Wolf, Frances Grodzinsky, Keith W. Miller

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

In his paper “On the Intrinsic Value of Information Objects and the Infosphere,” Luciano Floridi asserts that the goal of Information Ethics (IE) “is to fill an ‘ethical vacuum’ brought to light by the ICT revolution, to paraphrase Moor” (1985). He claims “IE will prove its value only if its applications bear fruit. This is the work that needs to be done in the near future” (Floridi 2002). Our chapter proposes to do part of that work. Initially we focus on Floridi’s Method of Levels of Abstraction (LoA). We begin by examining his methodology as it was first developed with …